My guest, Mitchell Blackmon started Patriot Chimney, a chimney service and installation business in Roanoke, VA, last year with his brother Matt and his friend Billy. They have recently made their first hire and have another one coming shortly, a testament to the growth they’ve been experiencing.If you liked the recent episode with Rich Jordan, you’re going to like Mitchell’s story too as he’s thinking about many of the growing pains and plans. We talk about getting into college despite losing the opportunity to play college track & field due to an injury, starting a home cleaning business, how wrapping his trucks has brought in more customers, developing a new routing system, and how he’s hiring new employees.This episode is an example of what I love about the small business investing and operating space. Discovering new businesses and industries you never knew existed. I knew nothing about the chimney business and loved learning about it from Mitchell in this episode. I hope you find a few great takeaways from his story.For the full episode transcript and more, visit alexbridgeman.com/podcast.I’m also the founder of The Operator’s Handbook, a print publication where small company operators share their insights and ideas for building more effective and profitable companies. Articles focus on process improvement, sales, hiring and training, managing culture, and all responsibilities within operating a small company. If you run a small business and are looking for new ways to grow and improve, subscribe today and join your peers in the endless pursuit of better at theoperatorshandbook.com.

My guest on this episode is Lacey Wismer. Lacey runs her recently started search investment fund called Hunter Search Capital and has been conducting research on female searchers and unique challenges they encounter while seeking and operating a business. We talk extensively about women in search along with how she’s seen the model grow over her career, alternative models in search, constructing a searcher’s board, and how she’s instilling entrepreneurial values with her two daughters. Speaking of, her 11 year old daughter has a bakery business for residents in the Park City, Utah area. If you live nearby, you can place an order on her website at bananasbakedgoods.com. She makes cupcakes, macarons, cakes and more, an entrepreneur in the making. This conversation was super interesting, thought-provoking, and fun and I hope you benefit from hearing her experience. For the episode transcript and more, visit alexbridgeman.com/podcast.I’m also the founder of The Operator’s Handbook, a print publication where small company operators share their insights and ideas for building more effective and profitable companies. Articles focus on process improvement, sales, hiring and training, managing culture, and all responsibilities within operating a small company. If you run a small business and are looking for new ways to grow and improve, subscribe today and join your peers in the endless pursuit of better at theoperatorshandbook.com.

My guest is Rich Jordan. Rich bought a home service plumbing business only a few short weeks ago in Pennsylvania. If you’re on Twitter, you might already be familiar with Rich as he has been tweeting about his time running the business and has been so much fun to follow. If you’re not already following him you’re missing out. During the episode we talk about Rich’s first few days in the business getting his hands dirty, fighting off competing offers for his plumbers from competitors, and a few moves he’s done to grow revenue 60% in only 8 weeks of ownership. If you liked the Collin Hathaway episode from a few weeks ago you’re going to love this one as Rich reminds me of an early-days version of Collin. He is just getting started but has made tremendous progress already and I hope you enjoy getting to hear about his short journey so far. For the full episode transcript and more information, visit alexbridgeman.com/podcast.I’m also the founder of The Operator’s Handbook, a print publication where small company operators share their insights and ideas for building more effective and profitable companies. Articles focus on process improvement, sales, hiring and training, managing culture, and all responsibilities within operating a small company. If you run a small business and are looking for new ways to grow and improve, subscribe today and join your peers in the endless pursuit of better at theoperatorshandbook.com.

My guest, Mark Sinatra, raised a traditional search fund with a partner in 2006 after graduated from Wharton and a year and a half later acquired an HR company called Staff One HR. I’ll let him tell the full story but there were significant ups and downs running the company including moving the company from Southern Oklahoma to Dallas, managing staff turnover of roughly 85% during that move, and losing their biggest customer who was 30% of their revenue. Despite those downs, the company grew significantly and led to a successful exit, leading eventually to what Mark focuses on today which is investing in search funds.During the episode, we also talk about hiring great employees, building culture in a growing organization, and advice to prospective searchers. Mark was very open in sharing his experience and I hope you find some great takeaways from his story.For the full transcript and more information, visit alexbridgeman.com/podcast.I’m also the founder of The Operator’s Handbook, a print publication where small company operators share their insights and ideas for building more effective and profitable companies. Articles focus on process improvement, sales, hiring and training, managing culture, and all responsibilities within operating a small company. If you run a small business and are looking for new ways to grow and improve, subscribe today and join your peers in the endless pursuit of better at theoperatorshandbook.com.

A.J. Gordon runs Gordon Aluminum in Schofield, WI, a company that was founded by his grandfather, passed to A.J.’s father, and eventually to A.J. himself. The company has a fascinating story told in great detail that includes machines breaking down, closing business lines, multiple recessions, and a lightning strike that set fire to their offices and burned their computers and data, forcing them to start from scratch.This is a story about a company and family’s will to survive, rebuild, flourish, and constantly improve. We also talk about lessons passed down to A.J. by his father and grandfather, what he’s teaching his kids from his experience, and the stress and excitement in running a company with a storied history.For the full episode transcript and more information, visit alexbridgeman.com/podcast.I’m also the founder of The Operator’s Handbook, a print publication where small company operators share their insights and ideas for building more effective and profitable companies. Articles focus on process improvement, sales, hiring and training, managing culture, and all responsibilities within operating a small company. If you run a small business and are looking for new ways to grow and improve, subscribe today and join your peers in the endless pursuit of better at theoperatorshandbook.com.

I interview many folks with unique backgrounds and Jared is among the most unique. Jared worked at NASA, then McKinsey, got his MBA at Harvard, then alternated between working at McKinsey and Teach for America, ran for governor of Arkansas, and last year became the CEO of Assist Services. Assist is a Portland based transportation company for underprivileged children to help them get to and from school and other important locations. Jared is leading Assist Services to become a nationwide company, all remotely from his home in Arkansas.I’ve been very excited to have him as a guest because of his focus on social missions, building a great team to serve a very vulnerable group, and expanding a storied regional company to a national level. Enjoy the episode.For the full episode transcript and more information, visit alexbridgeman.com/podcast.I’m also the founder of The Operator’s Handbook, a print publication where small company operators share their insights and ideas for building more effective and profitable companies. Articles focus on process improvement, sales, hiring and training, managing culture, and all responsibilities within operating a small company. If you run a small business and are looking for new ways to grow and improve, subscribe today and join your peers in the endless pursuit of better at theoperatorshandbook.com.

Collin Hathaway, a micro private equity fund manager, discusses his journey into private equity, focusing on home services businesses. Topics include acquisition criteria, company culture, risk-taking in entrepreneurship, negotiation strategies, and unique business ventures.

My two guests for this episode are Ryan Lechner and Nico Gimenez who have raised a traditional search fund together as partners called Bonsai Group and are a few months into their search. I’ve had searchers with partners on the podcast before, Sam Rosati being a great example, but I haven’t had them on the podcast before together. What made this episode particularly fun is Ryan and Nico are lifelong friends and it shows. Finding a partner for a search with aligned values can be very difficult and luckily for them they had a very long due diligence period.In this episode we talk about why they chose to search as partners, how the role is divided now and might be upon close, how their outreach strategy has evolved, and a company with a very niche monopoly in surfing.For the full episode transcript and more information visit alexbridgeman.com/podcast.I’m also the founder of The Operator’s Handbook, a print publication where small company operators share their insights and ideas for building more effective and profitable companies. Articles focus on process improvement, sales, hiring and training, managing culture, and all responsibilities within operating a small company. If you run a small business and are looking for new ways to grow and improve, subscribe today and join your peers in the endless pursuit of better at theoperatorshandbook.com.

My guest is Brian Vanderheyden who ran a search from Chicago starting in 2015 and 2 years later in 2017 acquired a company called Richmond Alarm Company in Richmond, VA. Richmond Alarm was founded 73 years ago and Brian acquired the business from the founder’s two sons who had taken over the business from the father. During the episode we talk about Richmond Alarm’s history and their in-office museum of 73 years of security technology, how he’s developed his team over time, the dynamics of the security industry, and why he admires Chick-fil-A. Enjoy the episode.For the full episode transcript and more information, visit alexbridgeman.com/podcast.I’m also the founder of The Operator’s Handbook, a print publication where small company operators share their insights and ideas for building more effective and profitable companies. Articles focus on process improvement, sales, hiring and training, managing culture, and all responsibilities within operating a small company. If you run a small business and are looking for new ways to grow and improve, subscribe today and join your peers in the endless pursuit of better at theoperatorshandbook.com.

My guest today is Scott Picker. Scott was born and raised in Oregon and went to college at Washington State University where he majored in agriculture education and horticulture, before starting Aspen Creek Landscaping in Sherwood, Oregon. Over the last 20 years, Scott has built a 55 employee landscape construction and maintenance company focused on high end residential and local wineries. During the episode we talk about him planning out and building Aspen with his wife from the ground up, how it has evolved over time and how he’s had to change his role to suit the company, building a great, customer focused team, succession planning, and his side business raising 160 longhorns on his ranch.This episode was an amazing look at what running a company looks like on the inside and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.For the full transcript and more information, visit our website at alexbridgeman.com/podcast.I’m also the founder of The Operator’s Handbook, a print publication where small company operators share their insights and ideas for building more effective and profitable companies. Articles focus on process improvement, sales, hiring and training, managing culture, and all responsibilities within operating a small company. If you run a small business and are looking for new ways to grow and improve, subscribe today and join your peers in the endless pursuit of better at theoperatorshandbook.com.